HEALTH workers in Felixstowe are today moving a few hundred yards - as the Bartlet becomes the resort's General Hospital for the next few months.

HEALTH workers in Felixstowe are today moving a few hundred yards - as the Bartlet becomes the resort's General Hospital for the next few months.

Felixstowe General in Constable Road is closing for a £1.4 million project to turn it into a modern community hospital.

Meanwhile, the Bartlet on Bath Hill, which will be closed once the work to the General is done, will provide its last service to the town after 80 years as it houses all the General's clinics and services during the refurbishment.

The only service which will not take place during the work is X-rays because the equipment cannot be moved.

One of the major benefits of the changes is an extension to the hours of the minor injuries unit, which will open for an extra hour-and-a-half daily.

From tomorrow the MIU will be in the Landguard Ward at the Bartlet Hospital and open from 7am to 10pm.

Other clinics which will be at the Bartlet temporarily will include audiology, speech and language therapy, podiatry, leg ulcer club and outpatient clinics.

Children's services move to St Felix Church Hall, Gainsborough Road, and Felixstowe Library.

Some work has been done at the Bartlet to get it ready to take on the General's services, and in-patients will be in a ward upstairs.

Phone numbers for the General (01394 458820) and Bartlet (01394 458870) remain unchanged.

Tenders are being sought for the work at the General and will start as soon as possible. Health chiefs hope it will be complete by next summer but they have warned it could take until the autumn.

When completed, the refurbished General's facilities will include 16 in-patient beds, health and social care workers, a minor operations suite, a physio unit, a minor injuries unit, X-rays, and it will provide around 20 clinics for the people of Felixstowe and its surrounding villages.

There will be a new dining area, a single storey dayroom, linen cupboard and cleaning store. Better toilets, showers and bathrooms and disabled facilities will also be created.

Martin Royal, who is leading the project for Suffolk PCT, said: “It will be a very busy hospital, creating a modern community facility for the people of Felixstowe and the surrounding district.

“It will be a vast improvement in the delivery of care, making the most of the PCT's resources. Health and social care professionals will be able to work together effectively from the same base, which can only improve the service for patients.”

WEBLINK: www.suffolkeast.nhs.uk/felixstowehospital.wmv

There is no need for patients to make an appointment and the MIU staff can treat:

cuts, grazes and lacerations

fainting

moderate asthma

mild abdominal pain

gastric upsets

simple burns and scalds

nose bleeds

allergic reactions

fever

low blood sugar

minor head injury

renal colic

venous haemorrhage

febrile convulsion

falls, sprains, and some eye problems